Agenda and minutes

Councillor Campbell has given his apologies for this meeting and will be substituted by Councillor Johnston.

Apologies were received from Councillor Campbell, substituted by Councillor Johnston.

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

To approve the Minutes of the Community Safety Partnership Working Party meeting held on 30 June 2016, copy attached.

Councillor Falcon proposed, Councillor M. Saunders seconded and Members agreed the minutes as a correct record of the meeting that was held on 30 June 2016.

Members to receive a presentation from Thanet Community Safety Partnership, led by Kent Police.

After explaining the brief background to the identified topic for discussion, Councillor Curran, Chairman of the working party invited Acting Detective Chief Inspector Max Davidson, Kent Police to make the presentation. The reason for the invitation was for Members to seek clarification on the facts regarding the discrepancies between reported rape crimes and conviction rates in Thanet. Acting DCI Davidson gave some contextual background to the presentation.

Pre 2013: Before the referral Clinical approach was adopted, each of the three police divisions in Kent had a rape investigation unit. There were approximately eight rape case suites in various districts. Part of the investigation process was to take victims away from the police station to these suites in order to carry out medical examinations and interview by video. These have now been replaced by a new approach that introduced Sexual Assault Referral Clinics (SARC).

New Approach since the 2013 Report: These clinics capture forensic evidence (a task that was previous done through these suites). After the national review that led to the Home Office report in 2013, a decision was made to standardise at high specifications, the collection and processing of evidence relating to sexual offences in England and Wales through SARC. This was now being done with the support of the NHS, as the main commissioning group. Thirty nine clinics were set up across England and Wales, to manage a high standard of interviewing process and evidence gathering.

Kent has one such clinic in Maidstone and it is called Beach House. The process for collecting forensic samples and conducting medical examination was now being done by specialised staff in Kent; Mountain Health Care is the company that is contracted to deliver this service. The unit is part of Maidstone Hospital and has a nurse led forensics team.

Mountain Health Care is familiar with the Police requirements for evidence collection and works to those standards. They are able to write up forensic strategies to the required police specifications within the agreed timescales.

There are other victim support services in the county. These include the East Kent Rape Line, an independent service that provides support to victims of sexual violence and is based in Canterbury. There is Family Matters in Gravesend, as the counterpart to EK Rape Line.

The referral clinics provide twenty four hour service for actual victim support and strategy discussions. Rape Crisis, a national charity to which the EK Rape Line is an affiliate member. Victims living in Thanet can be referred to the EK Rape Line in Canterbury or they have the option to report to the Police or Accident & Emergency services (A&E) at QEQM Hospital. Victims can also report to their GPs who are familiar with the SARC, and can refer them to the appropriate services for further support.

Max Davidson referred to the 114 cases highlighted in the Freedom of Information request were sexual offence cases that were reported in Thanet in 2015. Of these cases, three had resulted in convictions at the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.